BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini wants AeTrade to start working in the country, so that Emaswati can start benefitting.
Dlamini wants this so much that he event offered to give a temporary office for this company to start working in the country, while it looked for its permanent base within the country. This transpired on Thursday (March 28, 2024) when the PM met with the company, which had paid a courtesy visit to him at the Private and Cabinet Offices in Hospital Hill, Mbabane.
The AeTrade Group was led by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mulualem Syoum, who was in the company of Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ms Treasure Maphanga. In 2019, Eswatini won the bid to host the Southern African regional headquarters for the AeTrade Group.
The objective of the meeting was to update Government on the progress of the AeTrade Group at continental level, including on flagship programmes such as the Africa Job Creation Initiative targeting youth unemployment, as well as digital and financial inclusion of MSMEs, women and youth as part of an integrated digital ecosystem called “Sokokuu.Africa.”
“The AeTrade Group reaffirmed its commitment to fully establish its operations in the Kingdom. In turn, I offered some options for the temporary location of their head offices until the permanent headquarters are built,” said the Prime Minister on his Facebook page.
He advised the AeTrade Group to work with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade to prepare a programme of action enumerating the key areas of cooperation to be activated so that Eswatini could benefit from the opportunity to be a regional hub for Southern Africa. This should also address some of the critical areas of job creation, digital and financial inclusion within the Kingdom, said the Prime Minister.
The CEO of the AeTrade Group appreciated the advocacy support from the Kingdom of Eswatini, notably by His Majesty King Mswati III, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council of the AeTrade Group. He further stated that the most urgent task is to implement programmes at grassroots that can positively impact people’s lives by working collectively with Government, development partners, the United Nations family as well as the private sector and civil society stakeholders.
According to its website, the African E-Trade Group (AeTrade) is a multi-stakeholder group of African professionals and business people with a vision to develop and implement an e-empowerment program that will enhance intra-and inter-African trade. The group brings together public and private sector partners to develop projects that leverage the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the benefit of Africa’s present and future entrepreneurs.
According to the African Union (AU) website, in July 2019, the African Electronic Trade Group (the AeTrade Group) which also includes the African e-Commerce Development International, announced that it accepted the offer of the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini and that of the Government of the Republic of Guinea to host its Southern Africa and Western Africa regional offices, respectively.
This was during the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), which was held from July 4 – July 8 2019, in the Niger capital city, Niamey. The other major event, which was at the same time unprecedented, was that the Niamey Summit launched the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AeTrade Group would be on the ground one of the key facilitators of national and regional AfCFTA implementation in order to eventually create a single digital market in Africa.
